This is a story about a true lover’s ghost, wandering the halls of The Baker Mansion, forever dancing gracefully on the tunes of her unfulfilled love. Her memories are relived every night when the moon shines bright through the windows and Anna Baker comes alive in her wedding dress. Let’s know more about Anna Baker and her haunted wedding dress.
The Legend Of Anna Baker And Her Haunted Wedding Dress
The Baker Mansion (1849) was set in the small town of Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania where it still stands today as a historical museum. The Mansion was home to Elias Baker and his wife, Hetty, where they lived along with their two sons, David Woods and Sylvester, and their youngest daughter, Anna Baker. Elias was a true patriarch and an ironman with steel shares along with the county. Ignorant to the desires of his youngest child, Anna had fallen in love with an employee who worked for him. Receiving strong objections from her family, this hidden affair was short-lived and ended on a tragic note like its temporary glory.
The authoritarian figure of her father made Anna give up the only man she wanted to marry and this loss stayed with her till her death, and thereafter. Confining her within the walls of the only true love she had ever known, Anna made a decision to never marry again. In 1848, when Elias Baker died, she visited the man she still loved only to find him settled down. This made her bitter, angry, and sad, for she had the lost her only chance at happiness because of her father.
Anna soon lost her mind and was declared insane by the town for her erratic behaviour and unsocial behaviour. Alone in the Mansion, the maids would often find her dancing in the halls of the room dressed in her white wedding gown, moving along to the rhythm that played on her music box. Even though she died in 1914, Anna’s soul still dances and walks around in her wedding dress to this date.
The Haunting Of The Baker Mansion
The Baker Mansion was opened up for everyone as a historical museum in 1941 with the reportage of several paranormal and unexplainable incidents. The beautiful white wedding dress of Anna Baker was cased till a few years back until it was put out of display in order to preserve it. Before this was done, it was often seen that the glass case of the dress would shake violently as if someone was trying to get inside it. A lot of times, especially during full moons, the dress would itself move and dance along with the ghost inhabiting it.
Anna Baker’s room was also preserved, where cameras and staff have often caught and seen images of an old hassled lady in the mirror. Sometimes, Anna Baker’s Music Box left in one of the rooms of the mansion would start playing on itself, cursed along with the other objects in the house.
The ghosts inhabiting The Mansion aren’t solely of Anna Baker but it has been witnessed by visitors that the furniture of the house would move on its own along with sightings of a woman spirit dressed in black, possibly Hetty, Anna’s mother. Elias Baker’s ghost has also been spotted more than a few times descending the steps of the mansion. The tragic death of David Baker, Anna’s older brother, in 1852, had led to the burial of his dead body in one of the rooms of the Mansion. Screams have been reported coming from that particular room possibly as his spirit still roams around the Mansion.
How True Are The Hauntings?
These evidences and reportings, almost seem believable and true, but somehow, oddly, staged. There have been rumours that the mayor of Altoona purposely developed this haunted tale so that the county would attract more tourists. The opening up of the Mansion as a museum was also deemed so as to stage the story in the most believable setting in order to give it more authenticity.
The truth can be as deceiving as it looks, but one thing for certain that we can checkpoint is the Tragic Fairytale Story of Anna Baker. Seeing her loss and pain, it might just be true that perhaps her soul roams around in this world searching for her true love, all over again.
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